A sudden surge in sick students

That didn’t take long. A week ago we wondered what would happen when college students returned to campus. We already know the answer. Less than seven days after the new semester started amid a pandemic, there has been a breakout of Covid-19 cases on the UW-La Crosse campus. As of Saturday, 224 cases have been reported there, 105 of them just on Friday. The percentage of positive cases has climbed markedly, from six percent on Tuesday to more than 78 percent on Saturday. The University had set aside 130 spaces for students to quarantine or isolate. That is already at 75% of capacity. 370 students in just one UWL dorm will spend the next ten days in quarantine. Administrators warned that if student’s don’t take more precautions, the school would return to an online learning model well before Thanksgiving. That now seems almost certain. There have been too many large gatherings, not enough social distancing, even students ignoring their quarantine or isolation orders. We had hoped there may be some hope students would take this pandemic seriously and help slow the spread. Less than one week later, the numbers clearly show otherwise.